Is Dove of Peace in Danger? THE JEWISH NEWS Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951 Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich., YE. 8-9364. Subscription $5 a year, Foreign $6. Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1952, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ SIDNEY SHMARAK FRANK SIMONS Editor and Publisher Advertising Manager City Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the twenty-fourth day of Shvat, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Mishpatim-Sheka/im, Ex. 21:1-24:18, 30:11-16. Prophetical portion, 1 Sam. 20:18-42. Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 25, 5:20 Pan. VOL. XXX No. 21 Page Four January 25, 1957 'Expediency': Recurring Anti-Israel Weapon Twenty years ago, when British For- eign Office officials were conferring, in London, simultaneously with Arab and Jewish leaders, on the Palestine question, Britain's government leaders admitted to the late Dr. Stephen S. Wise, who was a member of the Jewish delegation at the round table sessions with the Mandatory Power, that justice was on Israel's side but that "political expediency" compelled 'them to make concessions to the Arabs. Thereupon, immigration of Jews to Palestine was further restricted, the Bal- four Declaration pledges were additionally whittled down and it became evident that Great Britain had abandoned its obliga- tions to world Jewry and to the then League of Nations as the. Mandatory Power over Palestine. The emergence' of the State of Israel resulted almost entirely from Jewish efforts, primarily motivated by the despair of a harrassed people, in spite and in defiance of British appease- ments. Much as we dislike making the com- parison, we are now inclined to the belief that history is repeating itself; that a policy of "expediency," similar to the frustrated plans of the British, now is being adopted unrealistically and rather cruelly by our own Government. * * * A most dispassionate review of the events in the 1930s will reveal that none of the concessions made by the British to the Arabs had brought any positive re- sults. The Arabs collaborated with the Nazis and would have moved into the Hitler corner had the turn of military events gone against the Western demo- cratic nations. The Arab leaders were uncompromising in all their dealings. They kept on selling land to Jews in Palestine at exorbitant prices, always with the view eventually of acquiring all Jew- ish possessions by driving the Jews into the sea. Such an attitude created the Arab refugee problem. Arab strategy remains the same today. We must qualify it by pointing out that it is the strategy of the Arab effendi rulers who, while fighting Israel, are determined also to oppress their own impoverished masses by keeping them in squalor and in ignorance. It is not the way of life of the masses of the Arabs, the poor fellaheen whose status is the lowest in the world. Only in Israel do the Arabs possess polit- ical, economic and cultural freedom. It has been pointed out with justice that there are only two places where Arabs have a right to vote unhamperedly and freely in democratic elections: in Israel and in the United Nations. And the Israeli Arabs enjoy the highest economic standards of the Arab peoples anywhere in the world. Anti-Israel and anti-West strategy among the Arabs has not changed, in spite of all the privileges accorded them, in spite of all the appeasing gestures. But expediency" remains the dominant factor in the suppression of just rights for the Israelis. The position taken by our Gov- ernment on the latest United Nations resolution, sponsored by the Afro-Asian bloc, proves the point. The U. S. Chief UN Delegate, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., had yielded to anti-Israel demands for an im- mediate withdrawal of Israel troops— without assurances to Israel's safety. Ambassador Lodge, pursuing the "ex- pediency" policy of. our State Department, knows full well that Egypt had not, even for a single moment, evidenced a desire to comply • with the UN resolution of 1951 which called upon Egypt to end its block- ade of the Suez against Israel. But in spite of a six-year abuse of Israel's just rights, Mr. Lodge went along in support of a resolution giving Israel five days in which to withdraw from areas that were pre- viously used by murderous terrorist gangs against Israel's security. • " Where will "expediency" lead our country? Is it possible that our State De- partment has not learned the lesson of the British? The latter kissed the Arab hands, and were slapped in return. We are bend- ing backwards to satisfy Nasser, to rebuild the dictator who for a passing moment was crushed by the Israelis, but the dic- tator's • followers s li o u t "Long Live Khrushchev." How long can this go on? In the name of "expediency," spelled "oil" in industrial terms, we are conced- ing everything to the Arabs, and Israel's safety is endangered. There is a manner of inconsistency which calls for revision, and we sincerely hope, at this late hour in a battle for the life of a small fraction of the peoples involved—the 1,900,000 Israelis —and of the endangered peace of the en- tire world, that new attitudes may find a way into the hearts of the statesmen who control the situation. * * * Then there is the element of justice in the following statement made at the UN by the Australian delegate, Sir Percy Spender: "Egypt cannot have it both ways. If prior to the Israeli invasion of Sinai a state of war in truth already existed between the two countries, then Egypt should be obliged, together with Israel, to desist from all acts of war .. . "The aim surely of the United Na- tions should be to bring to an end the hostilities which have occurred, but at the same time to create conditions which will make the various questions involved susceptible of a final and equitable solu- tion." In line with which we must address ourselves to the Chief U. S. Delegate to the UN, Mr. Lodge, and to inquire: "What has happened to the resolution you spon- sored in the second week of November, calling for consideration of peace moves between Israel and her neighbors? Isn't that the first objective in an effort to end all strife? Is it more expedient to mollify Arab war-mongers than it is to get all elements to sit down, together, and to talk peace. That was your policy, Mr. Am- bassador Lodge. What has happened to it since?" It is a long question, and we hope that it will bring a positive answer. We have no objection to its being called a prayer for peace, and we hope it will not be turned into a vain aspiration for justice and amity. While we are dealing with "elements of justice," it is essential that we should take into consideration also the attitudes of the governments whose spokesmen at the United Nations did view with sympa- thy the position of Israel. We have just quoted the statement of the Australian delegate, but his vote was on the side of injustice. In addition to the delegate from United States, spokesmen for Canada, New Zea- land, the Dominican Republic, the Nether- lands, Ireland and Portugal indicated that they recognized the validity of Israel's demands for security in the withdrawal issue. But their votes again indicated expediency" rather than firm adherence to policies of fair play. Only Guillaume Georges-Picot of France voted with Israel against the shockingly unjust UN resolution. Costa Rica and Cuba gave evidence of their resentment by abstaining. Even so fine a friend of Israel as Prof. Enrique Rodri- guez Fabregat of Uruguay failed to raise his voice against a grave injustice that threatens the very existence of Israel and voted for the resolution. Which compels us, as an encouragement to Israel•and as a rebuke to her adversaries, to remind statesmen in striped pants of the admonition of Plato: "To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it." " Nine Supreme Court Justices Personalities in 'Mr. Justice' Include Louis D. Brandeis Eighty-nine men have served as justices of the United States Supreme Court in the highest court's history. Many biographies have been written about individual judges, and much has been written, especially lately about the court as an entity. The personality sketches of nine of the Justices, written by authorities in the legal profession, appearing in "Mr. Justice," edited by Profs. Allison Dunham and Philip B. Kurland, and published by University of Chicago Press (5750 Ellis Ave., Chi- cago 37), add great interest to the combined subject of high court and its justices. It is quite appropriate that the colorful Mr. Justice Holmes should head the list of the men delineated in this volume. Francis Biddle wrote the Holmes sketch. Chief Justices Marshall and Stone are dealt with by William Winslow Crosskey and Prof. Dunham. Charles Fairman authored the story of Mr. Justice Bradley. . • . • Prof. Paul A. Freund; Of. Harvard, in a warm deliheation of Mr. Justice Brandeis, points out that he possessed two requisites to be regarded as a philosopher: that "he had the sense that speculative issues ought to be referable to human affairs, even as speculation itself is a human enterprise"; and "he had an acute sense of the human comedy and the human tragedy in mortal striving." Prof. Freund points out about Mr. Justice Brandeis that as a lawyer "he was in the habit of lecturing his own clients on the need to recognize what was right in their adversaries' case." Brandeis' biographer recalls that "Sidney Hillman, on a visit to Justice Brandeis in his later years," parted "from the interview with the amiable remark, 'Mr. Justice, I think you are a conserva- tive.' The Justice replied with equal affability, 'I have always so regarded myself.' " Brandeis' is described as having exercised a great deal of self-discipline. Prof. Freund writes: "In him, as Justice Frank- furter has said, Hebraism and Hellenism were fused. Sutherland, by J. Francis Paschal; Hughes, by Merlo J. Pusey; Rutledge, by John Paul Stevens, and Taney by Carl Brent Swisher, are the other Justices described in "Mr. Justice," the collective articles of which make it an outstanding work on our high justices. `A Rare Confection of Laughter' 'Treasury of Folk Humor' In making his selections for "A Treasury of American Folk Humor," published by Crown (419 4th, N Y 16), James N. Tidwell applied two tests: selections chosen for inclusion must be funny to an American of 1956, and must be folk" humor. "Whatever the source," Tidwell says about his selections, "they were chosen because I felt they represented the American people and their laughter." There is plenty in this 620-page book to amuse the reader, and it is admittedly, as stated on the cover, "a rare confection of laughter" — containing all types of merriment, tall tales, jests, etc. This Treasury is not only entertaining, it is also instructive. Furthermore, guidance like that provided in the Mark Twain essay "How to Tell a Story" is as- validly delightful today as it was nearly 60 years ago. Samuel Goldwyn plays a role in this collection in the section of Goldwynisms. The movie magnate clearly has earned a place in American folklore. Roark Bradford's "Little David and Ole Goliar" is a genuine spiritual. There is an anecdote, "Hell and Texas," that proves there is nothing new under the sun. The anecdote as it appears in the Tidwell collection: "General. Sherman is often credited with saying that if he owned both Hell gnd Texas, he would rent out Texas and live in the other place. " 'That's right, every man for his own country,' the Texan is said to have retorted. Which is reminiscent of the anti-Semite who saw a rabbi in a public library and asked if he knew that no dogs and Jews were permitted there. "Then we must both leave," the rabbi retorted. Wise sayings, short and long tales, hundreds of good stories are incorporated in this well-selected anthology.